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Open shifts are free shifts to which you can invite employees to. They are shifts which are not assigned to anyone. The planner determines which employees are invited. These employees receive an invitation that can be accepted or rejected. After accepting, the planner can determine who the shift will be assigned to.
In this article, we will explain how to create open shifts, invite employees and assign the open shift to the right employee.
Content:
Requirements
To use open shifts, they must be enabled in the schedule settings.
Next, you can make open shifts visible by going to the Schedule menu and clicking the Filters button at the top right. In this list you must check Show open shifts. When this filter is enabled, you will see a bar for open shifts appear near the top of the teams in the schedule.
Adding open shifts
To add an open shift, go to the Schedule and click the Arrow in the button + Add shift at the top right. Then click on Add open shift.
An open shift can also be added by clicking on a Day slot of the desired Day in the bar with open shifts.
Editing an open shift
When you've created a new open shift or want to edit an existing open shift, the Info tab will open. Here, you can fill out the following details.
- Date: Make sure the open shift is set to the correct date.
- Repeat: Check this if you want the shift to be repeated periodically. Select the day(s) on which this shift should be repeated.
- Repeats: Here you can decide in which rhythm the shift should be repeated.
- Ends: If the repetition has a fixed end date, you can enter it here. Otherwise, select Never.
- Department: Choose the desired department.
- Team : Choose the desired Team.
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Shift template: The desired type of shift you want to fill.
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Employees needed: The employees that can be invited for this shift. You can pick multiple employees out of the dropdown menu.
- Start time & End time: The working hours for the shift.
- Unpaid break: Duration of break in minutes. The unpaid break will not be counted as worked hours.
- Paid break: Duration of a paid break in minutes.
- More options: Click this open to see more options
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Hide end time for employees: If you check this box then employees will not be able to see the end time of their shift, this can be useful if employees have to work until the end of the shift.
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Description: A description of the shift. This field is not mandatory.
- Custom field: If you require additional details in a shift, you can set up a custom field.
If the shift details are ready, click on Add Open shift & continue.
Inviting and assigning
Once you have clicked Add Open shift & continue, or you are editing an open shift, the tab Employees will open. Here, you can invite employees for the open shift and definitively assign employees to this shift.
In this menu, you can invite employees to an open shift. Employees get a notification to respond to their open shift request. In this menu, you can keep track of the status.
- Status: The status label indicates in what stage of th e assignment the employees are. If they do not have a status, they are not invited yet.
- Invited: To invite users, click the checkbox to the right of the name and click on Invite on the bottom right. Now, users will have a yellow label indicating that they are invited.
- Requested: These employees have accepted the open shift when approval is required. They still need to be assigned to the shift.
- Declined: These employees have received the invitation and have declined.
- Assigned: These users are assigned to the open shift.
📝 Note: Employees must first be invited to an open shift before they can respond, however planners can assign open shifts directly.
Next to the seachbar, you find a button for filters. This makes it easier to find suitabable candidates for the shift.
- Hide pending employees
- Hide declined employees
- Hide assigned employees
- Hide not invited employees
- Hide incompatible employees:
- Existing shift: Displays if an employee is already scheduled.
- Availability: Displays the availability.
- Absence: Displays if an employee is absent on this time of day
- Missing skill: Displays if the employee has the required skills necessary for this shift.
Lastly, it can be managed that the planner needs to approve who eventually gets the open shift assigned. Whenever an employee has been invited to and requested an open shift, the planner can Assign the shift.
💡 Tip: If you want to decide who gets the open shift, enable the checkbox "approval required". If approval is not required works on a first come, first serve basis: The employee who accepts the open shift first, will be scheduled.
Approval flow
Whenever an employee is invited, they will receive a notification to request or decline an open shift. The notification is visible on the top right under My Requests.
When the invitation is opened, the following screen will display where the user will see all details of the shift and the ability to request or decline the shift.
💡 Tip: If approval is not required, invited employees can immediately accept the open shift.
Once an employee has requested an open shift, it will be displayed in the schedule. The open shift will now display a user icon with a +, indicating a request. The icon with the number, incidates the amount of open shifts currently unassigned.
The employee tab of the open shift will display where you can select the employee with a requested status and can be assigned by clicking Assign on the bottom right.
📝 Note: Once all open shifts are assigned, the open shift will disappear from the open shifts row.
